文档介绍：英语 100 篇精读荟萃(中级篇) Passage One (Violence Can Do Nothing to Diminish Race Prejudice) In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence has e to be taken for granted asa means o f solving differences, that it is not even questioned. There are countries where the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there are countries where the black man protests by setting fire to cities and by looting and pillaging. Important people on both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get upa nd calmly argue in favor of violence – as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other. What is really frig htening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when es to the crunch, we have made no actual progress at all. We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basically unchanged. The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing. We have still not learnt that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute. The sheer horror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing. No solution es to light the morn ing after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us. The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and herder to get a hearing. They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because they advocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement. If half the energy that goes into violent acts were put to good use, ifo ur efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums and ghettos, at improving living-standards and providing educ ation and employment for all, we would have gone a long way to arriving ata solution. Our strength is sapp ed by having to mop up the mess that violence leaves in its wake. Ina well-directed effort, it would not bei mpossible to fulfill the ideals ofa stable social programme. The benefits that can be derived from co